Why Databases Still Fascinate Me
I get asked a lot about why or how I began working with databases years ago. I did not wake up one day and decide, “I am going to...
2025-11-28 (first published: 2025-11-10)
412 reads
Chris Yates
Query Intelligence in SQL Server 2025: What Developers Need to Know
When Microsoft announced SQL Server 2025, I was curious about what would truly change the way developers and DBA’s interact with data. Over the years, we have seen incremental...
2025-11-26 (first published: 2025-11-05)
687 reads
Seeing the Bigger Picture: How A Monitoring Tool Changed My Approach to Estate Management
When it comes to managing complex database environments, having the right monitoring solution is critical. That’s why I’ve relied on Redgate Monitor at different points in my career. It...
2025-11-17 (first published: 2025-11-02)
263 reads
Leadership in Times of Change: Guiding Teams Through Uncertainty, Disruption, and Transformation
Change is inevitable. What separates thriving organizations from those that falter is not the scale of disruption but how leaders respond to it. In times of shifting technologies, evolving...
2025-11-12 (first published: 2025-10-20)
312 reads
Beyond Pipelines: How Fabric Reinvents Data Movement for the Modern Enterprise
For decades, enterprises have thought about data like plumbers think about water: you build pipelines, connect sources to sinks, and hope the pipes do not burst under pressure. That...
2025-11-05 (first published: 2025-10-17)
443 reads
Measuring What Matters: Operationalizing Data Trust for CDOs
Trust is the currency of the data economy. Without it, even the most advanced platforms and the most ambitious strategies collapse under the weight of doubt. For Chief Data...
2025-10-30
14 reads
Fabric as a Data Mesh Enabler: Rethinking Enterprise Data Distribution
For decades, enterprises have approached data management with the same mindset as someone stuffing everything into a single attic. The attic was called the data warehouse, and while it...
2025-10-29 (first published: 2025-10-09)
316 reads
Designing for Observability in Fabric Powered Data Ecosystems
In today’s data-driven world, observability is not an optional add-on but a foundational principle. As organizations adopt Microsoft Fabric to unify analytics, the ability to see into the inner...
2025-10-27
25 reads
The Feedback Multiplier: How Leaders Can Turn Input into Innovation
In every organization there is a hidden currency more valuable than capital, more enduring than strategy, and more transformative than technology. That currency is feedback. Leaders who learn to...
2025-10-22 (first published: 2025-09-29)
148 reads
From Data Custodian to Innovation Catalyst: The Evolving Role of the CDO
There was a time when the Chief Data Officer lived in the shadows of the enterprise. Their office lights burned late into the night as they combed through spreadsheets...
2025-10-14
12 reads
Blogs
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS
Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...
Forums
25 Years of SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...
The Decoded Value
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value
Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...
Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers